Author Topic: EASY 6 wk old 2nd child  (Read 1872 times)

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Offline Thejoys

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EASY 6 wk old 2nd child
« on: January 21, 2015, 09:44:07 am »
Hi All,
I'm back again after a few years and unfortunately can't remember my old username. I have a now 5 year old and 6 weeks ago had another beautiful baby boy. We used EASY the first time around with much success except for the early riser and I'm back again with a few questions. I apologise in advance for the rambling nature of my post but I hope you can follow and chip in with questions and responses.

So EASY has been going something like this based on whatever time his night feeds are:
E - 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm or shifted out an hour to 8am etc.

The A part varies dramatically as he can take up to an hour and a half to drink his bottle. Bottles have 5oz in them, we are using Tommee Tippee bottles with a number 1 teat, have tried Avent too but he spills more than he drinks. We tried variflow a couple of weeks ago but he had a cold and we thought we would leave it before trying again so tomorrow we will start a couple of bottles with variflow. Having another child in the house and needing to eat/cook etc. means that taking so long to feed is really impacting on our eldest who constantly feels like I'm with the baby, especially when he comes home from school.

We hadn't implemented a DF as we tried about 2 weeks ago (I realise he was so small) and he only took 2 ounces and still woke an hour and a half later and couldn't be settled so he had a feed then and another a few hours later.

So we DF last night at 11pm and he woke at 1.30am (has been waking at this time for the past week) and I managed to Shh him back to sleep and I woke up at 3.30am (he didn't) and gave him a NF and he took 5 oz. He has also been mooching (awake) in the moses basket for the past few mornings after his 4.30am feed for quite a while and I can't sleep when he does that. He has just had his first bottle this morning and only took 3oz in 1.5hours so there was little to no A time and he is napping and I will wake him for his 10am E.

So really my questions are - thumps head- what do I do? DF or no DF? Do we limit how long it takes to give him a bottle? Do we try and cut down to 1 NF in the hopes it makes him take his bottles during the day? Taking yesterday as an example he had a bottle at 5. Bath at 7 tried another bottle as a cluster feed before bed and then DF at 11. Previously he had been going longer without a feed and I feel like we are messing up his body clock...

Sorry this is all over the place but I would appreciate some objective input if you can follow me  ;D

Offline jessmum46

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Re: EASY 6 wk old 2nd child
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2015, 14:03:51 pm »
I'm going to move you over to bottle feeding as taking that long to eat sounds like there may be a feeding issue.  Just as a thought off the top of my head has he been checked for tongue tie?

Offline Lolly

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Re: EASY 6 wk old 2nd child
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2015, 14:19:51 pm »
I would try the vari-flow teat and stick with it for a good few feeds before you decide if it's helping as it can take a while to adjust and spilling is fairly normal initially with a faster teat. I would stick with the same teat for all feeds as it will be confusing and maybe frustrating to swap back and forth.

I would also limit the feeding time, it may be that actually 5oz is too much at the moment but he's effectively grazing all day by letting him take that long and then he won't be truly hungry at the next feed time. A bottle feed shouldn't be taking more than 20 mins really. I wouldn't be cutting nightfeeds at this age, they really need the calories, the DF didn't work for either of my two as they refused to take it so we just fed when they woke, at this age I would always feed at night if it's been at least 2 hours since the previous feed and then resettle as quickly as possible. Mine never did a cluster feed either, we just stuck to the 3 hour EASY unless they were obviously hungry sooner than 3 hours.

Get him checked for tongue tie as suggested, that may not be helping if he does have one. I would bet though, with a faster teat and feeds kept to a decent time he will start taking bigger feeds more quickly. Another thought is that a bottle feed should be discarded by an hour after they have started drinking from it as bacteria wash back into the bottle from their mouths and warm milk is a very good medium for growing bacteria! A freshly made bottle is good for 2 hours at room temp, but only 1 hour from starting to drink it.

What do you think?

Laura


Offline Thejoys

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Re: EASY 6 wk old 2nd child
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2015, 18:21:00 pm »
Thanks for moving here makes sense.

Thanks so much for responding. We did DF last night at 11 he woke at 2.20 and i could have gotten him back to sleep except we had a leaking nappy, incidentally all his bowel movements are at night, anyway gave him a bottle and he took nearly 5oz and woke just before 7. Unfortunately i only have 2 variflow teats but can pick up some more tomorrow. The 2 variflow feeds today soaked him but he drank fast! The other feeds were the usual slow variety. We don't use it after
1hr 30min as per midwife.
in relation to the tongue tie he was checked in hospital as i was trying to BF but he kept coming off and they said he didn't have one but when bottle feeding he also has considerable spillage even when not variflow. What do you think?

Will get his tongue checked at 6 week visit which is next week when he's 7 weeks! Thanks so much for helping all advice welcome.

Offline Thejoys

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Re: EASY 6 wk old 2nd child
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2015, 00:02:30 am »
So an update...
Variflow teats - disaster! Didn't work. Dribbled everywhere and he got frustrated.
GP says no tongue tie and he weighed 11lb so doing well...8lb 3oz at birth. She recommended restricting feeding time to ensure he isn't snacking. He has head lag so we need more tummy time and he hates it but to be honest was only able to do when he was nearly ready for S again.